Cincinnati chili (or Cincinnati-style chili) is a Mediterranean-spiced meat sauce used as a topping for spaghetti (a "two-way") or hot dogs ("coneys"), both dishes developed by Slavic Macedonian immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920s. Ingredients include ground beef, water or stock, tomato paste, spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove, cumin, chili powder, bay leaf, and in some home recipes unsweetened dark chocolate in a soupy consistency. Other toppings include cheese, onions, and beans; specific combinations of toppings are known as "ways." The name "Cincinnati chili" is often confusing to those unfamiliar with it, who expect the dish to be similar to chili con carne; as a result, it is common for those encountering it for the first time to conclude it is a poor example of chili. It is almost never served or eaten by the bowl.

While served in many local restaurants, it is most often associated with the over 250 "chili parlors" (restaurants specializing in Cincinnati chili) found throughout greater Cincinnati with franchise locations throughout Ohio and in Kentucky, Indiana, and Florida. The dish is the area's best-known regional food.

Cincinnati chili originated with immigrantrestaurateurs from Macedonian Greece who were trying to expand their customer base by moving beyond narrowly ethnic styles of cuisine.[1][2]:28Slavic Macedonians Tom and John Kiradjieff immigrated from Argos Orestiko, fleeing the Balkan Wars, ethnic rivalries, and bigotry, in 1921.[3] They began serving a "stew with traditional Mediterranean spices"[2]:27 as a topping for hot dogs[2]:27[4] which they called "coneys" in 1922 at their hot dog stand located next to a burlesque theater called the Empress, which they named their business after. Tom Kiradjieff used the sauce to modify a traditional Greek dish, speculated to have been pastitsio,[5][6]moussaka[2]:28 or saltsa kima[7][8] to come up with a dish he called chili spaghetti.[2]:27 He first developed a recipe calling for the spaghetti to be cooked in the chili but changed his method in response to customer requests and began serving the sauce as a topping, eventually adding grated cheese as a topping for both the chili spaghetti and the coneys, also in response to customer requests.[2]:28

To make ordering more efficient, the brothers created the "way" system of ordering.[2]:29 The style has since been copied and modified by many other restaurant proprietors, often fellow Greek and Macedonian immigrants who had worked at Empress restaurants before leaving to open their own chili parlors,[2]:40[9]:244 often following the business model to the point of locating their restaurants adjacent to theaters.[2]:25

Gold Star Chili restaurant interior

Empress was the largest chili parlor chain in Cincinnati until 1949, when a former Empress employee and Greek immigrant, Nicholas Lambrinides, started Skyline Chili.[10] In 1965, four brothers named Daoud, immigrants from Jordan, bought a restaurant called Hamburger Heaven from a former Empress employee,[2]:40 noticed the Cincinnati chili was outselling the hamburgers on their menu, and changed the restaurant's name to Gold Star Chili.[10] As of 2015, Skyline (over 130 locations)[11] and Gold Star (89 locations)[12] were the largest Cincinnati chili parlor chains, while Empress had only two remaining locations, down from over a dozen during the chain's most successful period.[2]:84

Besides Empress, Skyline, and Gold Star, there are also smaller chains such as Dixie Chili and Deli and numerous independents including the acclaimed[2]:84Camp Washington Chili, probably the most well-known of the independents.[2]:84 Other independents include Pleasant Ridge Chili, Blue Ash Chili, Park Chili Parlor, Price Hill Chili,[13] Chili Time, and the Blue Jay Restaurant,[14] in all totalling more than 250 chili parlors.[2]:9 In addition to the chili parlors, some version of Cincinnati chili is commonly served at many local restaurants. Arnold's Bar and Grill, the oldest bar in the city, serves a vegetarian "Cincy Lentils" dish ordered in "ways."[15] Melt Eclectic Cafe offers a vegan 3-way.[16] For Restaurant Week 2018, a local mixologist developed a cocktail called "Manhattan Skyline," a Cincinnati chili-flavored whiskey cocktail.[17]

The history of Cincinnati chili shares many factors in common with the apparently independent but simultaneous development of the Coney Island hot dog in other areas of the United States. "Virtually all"[9]:233 were developed by Greek or Macedonian immigrants who passed through Ellis Island as they fled the fallout from the Balkan Wars in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Raw ground beef[4] is crumbled in water and/or stock, tomato paste and seasonings are added, and the mixture is brought to a boil and then simmered for several hours to form a thin meat sauce. Many recipes call for an overnight chill in the refrigerator to allow for easy skimming of fat and to allow flavors to develop,[7] then reheating to serve.[18] Typical proportions are 2 pounds of ground beef to 4 cups of water and 6 oz tomato paste to make 8 servings.[18]

Ordering Cincinnati chili is based on a specific ingredient series: chili, spaghetti, shredded cheddar cheese, diced onions, and kidney beans.[10] The number before the "way" of the chili determines which ingredients are included in each chili order.[4] Customers order a:

A cheese coney (hot dog topped with Cincinnati-style chili, mustard, onions, and a heap of shredded cheese) as served at Skyline Chili

Most chili parlors will also serve the dish "inverted": cheese on the bottom, so it melts.[4][19] Some restaurants, among them Skyline[20] and Gold Star,[21] do not use the term "four-way bean", instead using the term "four-way" to denote a three-way plus the customer's choice of onions or beans. Some restaurants may add extra ingredients to the "way" system; for example, Dixie Chili offers a "six-way", which adds chopped garlic to a five-way.[22] "Ways" are traditionally served in a shallow oval bowl.[2]:15[9]:243 Cincinnati chili is also used as a hot dog topping to make a "coney," a regional variation on the Coney Islandchili dog, which is topped with shredded cheddar cheese to make a "cheese coney." The standard coney also includes mustard and chopped onion.[23] The "Three-way" and the "Cheese Coney" are the most popular orders.[2]:10[24]

Very few customers order a bowl of plain chili.[25][26] Most chili parlors do not offer plain chili as a regular menu item.[20][21] Cincinnati Enquirer food editor Polly Campbell calls ordering a bowl of chili, "Ridiculous. Would you order a bowl of spaghetti sauce? Because that's what you're doing."[27]

Oyster crackers are usually served with Cincinnati chili,[9] and a mild hot sauce such as Tabasco is frequently available to be used as an optional topping to be added at the table.[23] Locals eat Cincinnati chili as if it were a casserole, cutting each bite with the side of the fork instead of twirling the noodles.[28][29]

The name "Cincinnati chili" is often confusing to those unfamiliar with it because the term "chili" evokes the expectation of chili con carne,[23][30][31] which it "bears no resemblance to."[32] Cincinnati chili is a Mediterranean-spiced[31][33] meat sauce[34] for spaghetti or hot dogs and is very seldom eaten by the bowl[24][35] as is typical with chili con carne. It is common for Cincinnatians to describe it starting with, "Well, it's not really chili..."[25] or "don't think of it as chili."[34]Cincinnati Enquirer food editor Chuck Martin and Cincinnati Magazine dining editor Donna Covrett agree, "It (is) not chili."[36][37] Cincinnati chili is always seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, and chili powder.[10][18] Many home recipes call for a small amount of dark unsweetened chocolate,[18] but according to Dann Woellert, author of The Authentic History of Cincinnati Chili, "There is no chili parlor in Cincinnati that uses chocolate in its chili."[2]:141 It is normally of a thin consistency,[33] closer to a soup than a stew,[14] and contains no vegetables or chunks of meat, though it is common to find large pieces of cayenne pepper hulls in Empress chili. The consistency, seasonings, and serving method are more similar to pasta sauce[33] or the spiced meat sauces used to top hot dogs in Rochester and other parts of Upstate New York, Rhode Island, and Michigan than they are to chili con carne.[2]:10

Cincinnati chili is the area's "best known regional food."[38] According to the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau, Cincinnatians consume more than 2,000,000 lb (910,000 kg) of Cincinnati chili each year, topped by 850,000 lb (390,000 kg) of shredded cheddar cheese.[2]:10 Overall industry revenues were $250 million in 2014.[39]

Eater called it "America's most controversial plate of pasta."[47] It is common for those unfamiliar with it, confused by the misnomer and expecting chili con carne, to "scorn it"[30][48] as a poor example of chili.[30][33][49][50] A 2013 piece published by the sports and culture website Deadspin went so far as to call it "horrifying diarrhea sludge."[51]

Country music duo Big & Rich sang about flying through Cincinnati and grabbing a bowl of Skyline chili in their song Comin' to Your City on the 2005 album of the same name.[52] Blues musician Lonnie Mack sang a song called Camp Washington Chili on his 1986 album Second Sight.[53]

Cincinnati chili is used allegorically as a symbol for vapid social interaction and social disconnection in the 2015 animated film Anomalisa, as the main character when on a business trip to Cincinnati is exhorted in multiple banal encounters to try the local specialty.[54][55][56][57]